I would suggest to make a subpart for greetings and goodbyes , since for new members, they usually look for this part, since you can say hi and you can post something about yourself and people get to know you and you get to know people from 1 post + people can track the new members , and it allows the new people to get past the unfamiliarity barrier that some have.
Just my 2 cents ^^

The Tavern (general forum) moves pretty slow right now... I do like the suggestion, but I personally don't feel it's necessary at this time with so few "new" members and so little traffic in the Tavern-- though, things are picking up... so it's likely we'll consider adding such a forum in the future. =)